World News - DYING FOR KABUL Are the Germans Stationed in Afghanistan Cowards

Southern Afghanistan is far from having been pacified -- a bloody war with the Taliban has erupted there. German troops have picked a relatively comfortable spot for themselves in the north of the country. Because they have avoided deadly fighting, they have been labeled "cowards" by the Americans and Brits. But are they? David Byers peers forth cautiously at the world from behind his narrow, steel-rimmed glasses. He's combed his short brown hair so it fits neatly under his beret. His mouth is fixed in a serious expression, and Byers looks as if he has a lot of questions on his mind. His visage is part of a photo of his batallion, the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. Private Byers was 22 years old when he was first sent into the field -- in southern Afghanistan, more than 16,000 kilometers (9,942 miles) from his hometown of Espanola in southern Canada. His mission was to help bring democracy and political stability to the land of the Hindu Kush mountains -- ... http://www.spiegel.de

In the movie "The Wizard of Oz," the Tin Man receives a testimonial, the kind given to good deed doers. In Britain, good deed doers get honors bestowed on them by the Queen on the recommendation of the government in power. They go to charity workers, school crossing guards, to philanthropists, captains of industry and top entertainers. Some get an OBE -- Officer of the Order of the British Empire. Or a CBE -- Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire . Others, an MBE -- Member of the British Empire. And if you are really impressive you might become a Dame or a Knight -- Sir Richard Branson, Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Elton John and Sir Tom Jones, to name a few. Or you might become a Lord! The Queen’s Honours are supposed to be for those who make a difference, a positive difference to British society. But sometimes it seems it may be an under-the-table payback for favors to the government. Not only is this not cricket, it’s not legal, having been outlawed back in 1925. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/22/world/main2205655.shtml?source=RSSattr=World_2205655

Authorities are reviewing the conviction of a man imprisoned for a 1992 rape after he was cleared by DNA tests that the original lab analyst refused to conduct. Marlon Pendleton's lawyers received the results of the new tests Wed & filed amotion seeking to vacate his conviction. Prosecutors were reviewing the case & Pendleton's conviction in another rape, said John Gorman, spokesman for State's Attorney Richard Devine. A hearing was set for next Thursday. "It was no surprise to me," Pendleton, 49, told the Chicago Tribune on Thur in an interview at the Dixon Correctional Center. "I always knew I was innocent." Pendleton demanded DNA testing after his arrest, but police lab analyst Pamela Fish said there wasn't enough genetic material to test the evidence. Pendleton was convicted based on the victim's identification. Fish's work has been challenged in the past, most notably in the cases of 4 men later cleared by DNA evidence of the 1986 rape & murder of medical student Lori Roscetti...http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/24/rape.dna.ap/index.html?eref=rss_us

Pope Benedict XVI triggered a global crisis with his September speech in Germany. His ill-considered comments on Islam -- and the story behind how he came to utter them -- say a lot about how out of touch the Vatican really is. In the fall of 1966, Paris publishing house Editions du Cerf published the doctoral thesis of a Lebanese immigrant. The work, titled "Manuel II Paléologue, Entretiens avec un Musulman. 7e Controverse," was the kind of book whose pages once had to be separated with a knife. The author was young theologian Théodore Adel Khoury. "My book was never widely distributed in Germany," says Khoury. "It was written in French and Greek. I don't know how he came across the book." The "he" Khoury is talking about is the pope. Now, 40 years later, Khoury is a retired professor living in a rented house near the northern German city of Münster -- and for a few days Khoury became the world's most renowned expert on Islam. ...http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,450456,00.html

The governments of 10 South American countries signed an agreement on Friday to allow their citizens to travel within the region without passports.The measure is designed to boost tourism in a region which has long been a destination for European and North American travelers but is increasingly developing an internal tourist market of its own. Tourists from the 10 nations will be able to travel within the region by showing only an identity card at country borders. They will not need a visa and will be able to stay for 90 days. "We believe this measure will help us get to know how things are in each country," Chilean Foreign Minister Alejandro Foxley said at a signing ceremony in Santiago. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2677929

As of Friday, Nov. 24, 2006, at least 289 members of the U.S. military have died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The Defense Department last updated its figures on Saturday, Nov. 18, 2006. Of those, the military reports 187 were killed by hostile action. Outside the Afghan region, the Defense Department reports 56 more members of the U.S. military died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Of those, two were the result of hostile action. The military lists these other locations as: Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba; Djibouti; Eritrea; Jordan; Kenya; Kyrgyzstan; Philippines; Seychelles; Sudan; Tajikistan; Turkey; and Yemen. There was also one military civilian death and four CIA officer deaths. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2677994